Four photographs of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's funeral in Istanbul

ANONYMOUS., [Istanbul], [1938].

Original photographs collection including four gelatin silver photographs (three of them mounted on cardboard) taken when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's funeral is being carried from Dolmabahçe Palace. Three photos' size: 29x34 cm, photo sizes: 18x23,5 cm. Two photos damaged, overall a good collection.

Fine photograph collection showing the military parade and the mourning of Turkish civilians with crying and mourner schoolgirls during the departure and transportation of the body from and the first ceremony at the head of the coffin wrapped in Turkish flag in Dolmabahçe.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, first President of Turkey, died at the Dolmabahçe Palace, his official residence in Istanbul, on 10 November 1938. His state funeral was held in the capital city of Ankara on 21 November and was attended by dignitaries from seventeen nations. His body remained at the Ethnography Museum of Ankara until 10 November 1953, the fifteenth anniversary of his death, when his remains were carried to his final resting place at Anitkabir. Prof. Mehmet Kâmil Berk, one of the signers of the death certificate, bound Atatürk's jaw with a silk handkerchief and his big toes with a bandage, as per Islamic rites. Since the burial would be delayed, his body was embalmed by pathologist Prof. Lütfi Aksu, who came for this purpose from the Gülhane Military Medical Academy (GMMA) in Ankara. His body then lay in repose while his sister Makbule Atadan, high-ranking government officials and officers, and other influential people came at specified times to pay their respects. Atatürk's body was put in a zinc-lined mahogany casket of walnut wood. The flag-draped casket was placed on November 16 in the reception hall of the palace on a catafalque. It was flanked by three high torches at each side symbolizing the six pillars of Kemalist ideology and crowned by wreaths for lying in state. For three days, thousands of mourning people paid their respects passing by the catafalque, where an honor guard of officers stood vigil. Following the funeral prayer, Atatürk's casket was taken out of the Dolmabahçe Palace, placed on a horse-drawn caisson, and brought in front of a cortege to Gülhane Park. From Seraglio Point, a torpedo boat forwarded it to the battlecruiser TCG Yavûz. Turkish navy ships and foreign vessels escorted TCG Yavûz with Atatürk's casket aboard until off Büyükada. Yavûz carried then Atatürk's body to Izmit. Subsequently, Atatürk's casket was transferred to a funeral train in Izmit that brought it to Ankara arriving the next day on November 20. In Ankara, President İsmet İnönü, Speaker of the Parliament Abdülhalik Renda, Prime minister Celal Bayar, government ministers, Chief of the General Staff Marshal Fevzi Çakmak, high-ranked officers and members of the parliament were all present during the arrival of the funeral train in the Ankara Central Station. Atatürk's casket was brought on a caisson to the building of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ulus, where it was placed on a catafalque in front of the parliament building for lying in state. Thousands of residents of Ankara paid their respects. The next day, on November 21, a grander funeral ceremony was held, at which dignitaries from seventeen countries attended. A delegation from the League of Nations was also present at the funeral procession. The cortege with Atatürk's flag-covered casket on a horse-drawn caisson processed to the Ethnography Museum of Ankara escorted also by nine armed detachments from foreign nations, among them British, Iranian, and Yugoslavian guards of honor. Arrived at the Ethnography Museum of Ankara, Atatürk's casket was placed inside a white Marmor sarcophagus specially built along with the covering Turkish flag. Officials planned a monumental mausoleum for Atatürk at the topmost hill in Ankara, Rasattepe as it was called that time. During the fifteen years required for the mausoleum's construction, the Ethnography Museum of Ankara became Atatürk's temporary resting place